Gift of the Giver (3)

You have granted me life and goodness; and Your care has guarded my spirit. Job 10:12  NASB Care – Be very careful with this one.  “It has been said of this verb, which occurs more than three hundred times in the ot; ‘There is probably no other Hebrew verb that has caused translators as much trouble…

Gift of the Giver (1)

You have granted me life and goodness; and Your care has guarded my spirit. Job 10:12  NASB Life – Yesterday we examined the Qohelet’s claim that the animating spirit returns to God at death.  This idea is an important correction to the popular Western conception of eternal life.  It is important to note that this correction…

Epigenetics

yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”  Exodus 34:7b  NASB Inflicting – I like the NASB.  I use it as my standard English Bible text.  But in this verse, the translation couldn’t be worse!  There is simply no…

A Verse to Remember

“ . . . reckoning the crime of fathers with sons and sons with sons, to the third generation and the fourth.”  Exodus 34:7  Alter This was supposed to go out on October 8, but the server missed the schedule. Reckoning – Robert Alter’s attempt to render the Hebrew pāqad avoids the totally misdirected implication…

Is that ALL?

Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt.  Exodus 3:16 NASB Indeed concerned– Frankly, this translation is pathetic.  I don’t mean it…

Who’s In Charge?

Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth.  Psalm 31:5  NASB I commit my spirit– Exodus 34:7.  Yes, that’s right.  The infamous verse about “visiting the iniquity of the fathers” uses the same verb we find here, pāqad. Speiser writes, “There is probably no other Hebrew verb that has caused translators…

Generational Gymnastics (1)

who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”  Exodus 34:7 NASB Visiting – Does God pass iniquity to the children of sinful fathers? Or…

A History Lesson

“It will be, that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine and with pestilence,” declares the Lord, “until I have destroyed it by…

A Capricious Judge

“You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” Amos 3:2 NASB Punish – Consider the difficulties created by translating paqad with the word “punish” in this verse. The translation makes you think either 1) God has decided to punish Israel because He…

The Day of Fools

“It will come about at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are stagnant in spirit, who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good or evil!’” Zephaniah 1:12 NASB Stagnant in spirit – It is a serious, and sometimes fatal, mistake to pretend…